HOUSEHOLD KNIGHT: Painting and Assembling your Conquest Model

If you picked up issue 452 of Miniature Wargames, you'll have found yourself with a household knight! Here are all the details you need for assembling and painting your Conquest model. 

TOOLING UP

Before you get started putting together your mighty Household Knight you need to make sure you have all the right tools in hand! To follow this guide you will need:

• A set of clippers to clip the parts out of the sprue.
• A hobby knife to clean mold lines and remove excess material.
• Plastic glue!

Once you have gathered your tools and hobby supplies, it is time to start cutting the parts off the sprue and organize them for the different stages of assembly. You will notice that there are two protective headgear parts for the horse, two different types of lances, shields, knight heads and ornaments. You can choose whichever suits your taste better! 

We will begin by cutting the horse parts off the sprue and carefully removing any excess material. On the spue you will find the two parts of the actual horse, protective head panels, the tail, the saddle, straps and the two parts of the cloth. 

Having taken your time to carefully remove excess plastic it is time to put the two parts of the horse together. Make sure to apply only a bit of plastic glue and let it cure before you move on to the next steps. 

Use the image below left to help you orientate the model.

EXTRA HORSE FURNITURE

Once the glue you’ve applied to the horse has cured you can go ahead and add all the additional parts. You can start by glueing the saddle and the two reins. You will notice how one end of the reins attaches to the saddle whilst the other end goes on the bit. Then you can move on to glueing the tail and finally the two parts of the cloth. Once the parts are glued together and cured you can go ahead and glue on the headgear of your liking! Let it set and glue it on the base!

 

THE KNIGHT DRAWS IN 

As your fully assembled horse is curing we can now start putting together the knight! Start by clipping off the sprue the two parts of the torso and glue them together. Like you did when assembling the horse, it is important to let them cure before you add the next pieces on the knight.

 

ARMOUR UP!

Turning now to the rest of the knight, go ahead and clip the left arm, shield, head, cloak, lance and head ornament. You will notice you have a few alternative bits to choose from so go ahead and pick the ones that best represent your Knight and your Kingdom!

Once you have clipped the parts and removed excess plastic, it’s time for final assembly! Begin by glueing the head and ornament together and then move on to glueing the left arm with the shield. As you are waiting for those to cure, go ahead and glue the cloak onto the torso and then move on to glueing the right arm. Once you are done add the rest of the parts on to the Knight!

IT ALL COMES TOGETHER

Now you have a fully assembled Knight! Leave the plastic glue to fully cure and then you are ready to paint!

 

PAINTING THE KNIGHT

For this painting guide we’ll be using colors from the Warcolour range! Specifically, we will use the following paints:

• Pewter
• Antique Gold
• Metallic Silver
• Black
• Brown 2
• Brown 3
• Red 3
• Flesh 3
• Ochre 4
• Warm Grey 4
• Blue Grey 5
• Orange 4
• Cool Grey

 

PRIME

Once you gather the paints you need, it is time to prime the Knight! When priming, it is important to apply a uniform coat of black primer to ensure a nice and smooth finish for the paints. You can apply the primer with a spray or with multiple light coats of Black.

BASECOAT

Once the black primer has completely dried, it is time to start base coating the different areas of the Knight. Throughout this guide, it is important to apply thin coats of colour and allow them to fully dry before applying another one. Take your time and repeat the process until your colour reaches full opacity. (It might take longer but two thin coats are better than one thick one! Ed.)

Starting with the armour, apply thin coats of Pewter to the Knight and horse armour as well as on the lance’s tip and hilt. Then move over to the armour’s ornaments and paint them with Antique Gold.

Move on to the cloth of the horse, flags and cloak and apply multiple thin layers of Red 3. The saddle, the pole of the lance and the tattered leather on the face of the horse are painted with Brown 3, whilst the face of the Knight will be painted with Flesh 3. Finally, the bandages on the legs of the horse are painted with a mix of 50% Brown 3 and 50% Ochre 4. We will leave the tail and the skin of the horse black for now.

WASH

Once the basecoats are applied and fully dried, we wash the Knight with a uniform coat of Cool Grey to define the recesses. Try to not let the paint pool over flat surfaces while washing the model, however – if that does happen – do not worry! You can clean up your basecoats during the next step. 

BACK ON THE BASE

Once the wash has dried, we go back and re-apply the basecolors like we did in the basecoat section, but leaving the deepest recesses untouched.

In the photo below you can see how a basecoat of Red 3 is re-applied on the raised surfaces of the cloth, however, the wash in the recesses are left in place. We approach all surfaces of the Knight in the same way. 

Once you have reapplied your base colours, you dry brush some Warm Grey 4 on the tail of the horse. Then we paint the horse’s skin with a 50-50 mix of Black and Blue Grey 5 on the elevated areas. 

THE HIGHLIGHT

Once the base colours have dried and achieved a good amount of contrast between the recesses and raised surfaces of the models, it is time to add highlights! To highlight we will use brighter colours whilst making sure to leave some of the basecoat colour showing to further enhance contrast.

We begin by mixing 50% Red 3 and 50% Orange 4 and applying on the most raised areas of the cloth, flag and cloak where they would catch the most light. It is important to apply thin layers and keep building opacity to your liking. Don’t forget to let your coats fully dry before you move on to the next one to prevent the thin coats of paint from ripping.

We then move on to highlight the bandages by adding more Ochre 4 to your earlier mix (the 50% Brown 3 and 50% Ochre 4 one). Then you can proceed to highlight the saddle, pole and leather armour underneath the horse’s face with Brown 2.

In order to highlight the armour, we drybrush with Metallic Silver and then use a mix of 50% Metallic Silver and 50% Antique Gold to brighten the golden ornaments. Finally, you can use Blue Grey 5 to highlight the horse’s muscles!

FINISH LINE

There you have it, your fully painted Knight! Feel free to experiment with your own color schemes. Conquest is a game of Fantasy armies clashing against each other for domination. You can write your own stories and personalize each miniature to your liking.

Make sure to send us your painted Knight on our social media with the #ColorsofConquest hashtag and share your work with our growing international community! 

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This article originally appeared in issue 452 of Miniature Wargames. You can pick up your issue of the magazine here or subscribe to make sure you never miss another issue.